Page 118 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 February 1990
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issue?" I have no hesitation whatsoever in stating the position of the Government. The decisions in connection with the swimming pool at Tuggeranong, like the decisions in connection with the redevelopment of the Canberra Hospital system that Mr Berry could not face up to and failed miserably, like the decisions that have anything to do with spending significant amounts of money, have got to be made in a measured way in the context of the development of a budget strategy - not for this year, not for next year but for a longer period of time. I have been saying that publicly for a long time, but you on that side of the house do not understand that, you do not understand fiscal responsibility, you do not even understand the basics of budgeting. So you do not want to hear it. But the people out there want to hear it because they know that there is a price to these things that they are going to have to pay. Your Labor Government at the Federal level even pulled the rug out from under your Government when it came to financial support. It will continue to do so under this one.
We have got to face up to a financial situation where there is the worst possible scenario for us. That is what we have got to base our decisions on. We will do so, but to say that in February we should be telling you specifically what is going to be in our budget for 1990-91, which will not even be brought down for six months yet, you know to be an absurdity. You could not even get it in this year's budget. You could not even get it in your forward working program. You could not even identify the money in the forward design list vote, so do not talk to us about making provision. You people showed no sense of financial responsibility whatsoever. This Government is showing it and it will do so.
We will make the decision about the Tuggeranong swimming pool in the context of a total works program for the next several years. We will do it in the context of the budgetary situation for the next several years and the interests of the people of Tuggeranong will be taken into account, which is something that you lot failed miserably to do. So do not give us your hypocrisy.
MR WHALAN (12.22): This has been an excellent discussion. I do not share the pessimism of the people opposite. I do not share the view of Mr Collaery and I wish to place this on record. I do not wish to share the view that discussing a swimming pool in Tuggeranong is a waste of the time of this chamber. He stated that during his speech, Mr Speaker. And there was one other speaker who said that it was a waste of time to debate the Tuggeranong swimming pool, and that was Mr Jensen. Both said it was a waste of time.
But there is a more sinister implication in Mr Collaery's remarks because what he was suggesting when he said that it was a waste of time was that we should be getting on to matters of Government business. Does this mean that as
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